Thursday, June 13, 2013

While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. In the fullness of time there will be a more complete accounting of the night that'll include even more details and recordings.

8 p.m.: Bernice @ The Piston

Trying to ease into the overload of the festival, I decided to simply settle into one place for the night, and this showcase put together by Tin Angel Records had a nice mix of old favourites plus the chance of making some new discoveries. I was entirely pleased to see that the word on Bernice is getting around, as they attracted the most attention and biggest crowd of the night. It was also, even more excitingly, a quiet and respectful crowd (as the venue would have all night), which is great, as decorum can sometimes go by the wayside when shows get filled with passholders who are merely making the scene.

That made this an entirely conducive environment for Robin Dann and her supporting cast, and even if the set got off to a less-than-smooth start (thanks to an errant MIDI cable), that and the various between-song pauses gave a chance for her to draw the crowd in with endearingly awkward banter. The vocal interplay between Dann and Felicity Williams floated on top of the synth textures provided by Thom Gill (who'd show up on stage during a couple more sets as the night moved on) and some subtly-complicating guitar abstractions from Colin Fisher. Soulful as a warm breeze blowing in from St. Lucia and intimate as a letter from a friend, this band is settling into a special place right now.

9 p.m.: Ed Askew @ The Piston

When someone is tagged as a "freak folk outsider", or similar label, it's easy to come to a show ready to find a bug-eyed ranting semi-madman. And that was sort of the hook for Ed Askew, noteworthy for having released an album on the underground ESP-Disk label in 1969. But there's been a life lived in the meantime, with plenty of painting, poetry and music. On seeing the genteel Askew take the stage with solemn casualness, I remembered that reality's always more complicated than a three-sentence bio.

The occasional cough (brought on by allergies) notwithstanding, Askew and his backing duo (on keybs, guit, ukulele, banjo, and what I'm guessing was a tiple) created an understated yet affecting backdrop for his songs. Filled with unassuming vulnerability and melancholy memories, the most "outside" element here was Askew's plainspoken poetry, sometimes delivered in a sing-speak that belied the underlying craft. Ed Askew has existed outside the commercialized record industry for most of his life, a prolific home recorder with few formal releases, but there's now a whole bunch you can explore on his bandcamp — clearly his manner of musical production was just waiting for the world to catch up to him. His set was a quiet gem, and left me with a feeling not unlike meeting an old friend for a walk in the park on a cloudy day.

Ed Askew plays a non-NXNE set tonight (June 13) at Holy Oak, and one more official showcase on Friday (June 14), 11 PM at Czehoski.

Except for the fact that they are also on Tin Angel, I didn't know anything about Glasgow's Two Wings, though I did recognize local ringer Doug Tielli, who joined them for a few songs on trombone.1 That brassy opening salvo lent the band a soulful vibe, and I was momentarily worried that this was going to get all Commitments-ish. Fortunately, their palette is much broader than that, first evidenced when vocalist/guitarist Hanna Tuulikki added some flute grooves, and then even moreso when the band downshifted into a lean Fleetwood Mac-styled groove. The set even ended with a Yoko-riffic freakout, though that was a bit of a sonic outlier. At their best, the band moved with a sophisticated propulsion that kept itself grounded to a rockin' earthiness. Bonus feature: keep an eye out for drummer Owen Curtis Williams' intense facial expressions, earning you a checkmark if "drumface" is on your NXNE bingo card.

This was originally billed as a duo set alongside Devon Sproule, whose album of co-writes with O'Neill will be seeing release on Tin Angel in September. However, with unspecified complications keeping her away, some shuffling last-minute improvisations made this a unique, possibly one-off experience. Drafting some of the musicians who played on Colours was easy, as they had just been on the stage with Bernice. So here we had O'Neill taking the lead for these new songs, complemented by Robin Dann in a support role.

There were plenty of cheatsheats and notepads on stage, but the band got through the set with a rough-edged brio that was thoroughly enjoyable. Given how familiar these musicians are with each other, they managed to keep things from stumbling too badly — and in a few places it managed to soar with a sort of accidental majesty, such as on a set-clinching guitar solo from Thom Gill on "Nobody Tells Me a Thing" that he pushed further and further off the ledge, like it was his own personal "Purple Rain". I imagine we'll have a chance to hear these songs presented "properly" in Devon Sproule's own voice once the album comes out, but for now, this was a unique and memorable set.

Mile O'Neill will be playing a set of his solo material as part of the Murderecords tribute night on Friday (June 14) at 10 PM at The Great Hall.

I'm always happy to catch a set from Chris Cummings, who played until recently as Mantler. He's now operating as Marker Starling, but the songs and the spirit remain the same. In his customary trio with Matt McLaren (bass) and Jay Anderson (drums), his wurlitzer led the way through songs of sophisticated regrets and guaranteed good times. They'd be joined, for the bulk of the set, by another trio of backing vocalists: Felicity Williams and Thom Gill from Bernice, as well as Alex Samaras.

This configuration first came together for the musical tribute to Cummings' former collaborator Dennis Frey (who passed away last year) and has performed together on a few occasions since. I'd missed all those, and was glad to have the opportunity to hear some older songs from Landau and Sadisfaction get some lush new arrangements. "Regret", "Playing Along", and "I've Been Destroyed" (with its insistent repeating background vocal hook) all shone in this context. And finishing with enough time for one last song after that, Cummings acceded to a request and played the ever-funky "Fresh and Fair" which, not having been rehearsed, got some disco-y impromptu backing vocals. As always, a fabulous time from a wonderful entertainer.

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Founded as a blog about one curmudgeon's love affair with the em dash, Mechanical Forest Sound has grown to become a community-based archive of local musical culture. Assuming that "independent music" isn't just boys with guitars and "culture" isn't just some sort of pageant, MFS is an investigation of a wide range of artists, reflecting on concerts as shared experiences, acts of citizenship and a chance to get down — fuzzy photographs and clear-sounding original live recordings a specialty.

Current manifestations of this project include Track Could Bend, a monthly concert series featuring "improvised music and weird rock offshoots", presented in a casual environment.

At one point I wrote full-on concert reviews, and for longer I thought I would catch up and write about shows in the past. But these days, because of, y'know, life, do not expect much in the way of full show reviews — but live recordings with blurbs will be posted as quickly after the fact as is feasible.

All MP3's on this blog are audience recordings shared as a reminder of the excitement of seeing live music. If you are an artist who doesn't want their music shared in this way, please contact me and I shall remove it forthwith.

The Music Gallery presents Fusing: Premieres VII ["six new interdisciplinary premieres fusing new music with dance, circus, literary, visual, theatrical and media arts by emerging and established artists from near and far" (feat. Thin Edge New Music Collective) / 918 Bathurst 2018-06-22 (Friday) [FB event]